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lord black writes "I was walking the aisles of the local Fry's and discovered a nifty computer-case-erector-set-thingy. Made by Aero Cool, the Lubic kit is basically a bunch of aluminum rails, acrylic panels (for mounting hardware to), and misc. screws to connect it all, for constructing a unique computer case. They have a gallery of example cases. BTW, Aero Cool also makes neat CPU coolers."

People who are 'in the know' shunt around the whole Taiwan/China controversey by referring to that island as Formosa. Formosa is the Dutch colonial name for the island, so it pisses off all the different factions of Chinese equally to call it that.

Didn't take long to bring this site down. I saw some of the images and this looks like a great setup. What I don't like about cases is everything is closed up and changing things are made harder. Making art out of it, and keeping it open looks cool. Only thing is I would be worried about heat and dust buildup being in the open.

I rrecently upgraded my case from the POS that I had before. While shopping for the new case, I ran across these kits. While they sound interesting, (and I'd give them props for the concept if it weren't for the legos and erector sets that had it long before them) The finished products from their gallery are rather dissapointing visually.

I am an art major, so that might have something to do with my bias, but as far as I can tell, you'd get much better results visually with a couple sheets of plexi, your s

Why would you want these? While case shopping I saw these and for the first 3 seconds I was like, "cool." Then logic kicked in and realized they don't accomplish the two main things I look for in a case, protecting my equipment from dust and other nasties (as mentioned in parent) and dulling some of the noise. These things are like a spoiler on a Ford Escort. Yeah it may help the car look a tad better than god-awful, but it doesn't really accomplish anything of use.

Maybe the grammar nazi did get it, but chose to ignore it because it allowed him to bring in the word "plankeye". I have to admit, it's a pretty cool word. I can just see him champing at the bit (chomping? champing? what-the-fuck-ever) to use it.

As is fairly common knowledge, one of the chief functions of a computer case is to restrict stray electromagnetic fields to inside the box. If it's all made out of plexiglas (or other compounds other than metal, as are many typical case mods), wouldn't this end up doing something like, say, causing all your sperm to mutate?

Oh, wait, this is Slashdot. Like those spermies are ever going to end up anywhere but a tissue anyway.....

Some people have managed to meaasure the EM radiation from an open computer and measured practically nothing on the scale. The thing is that the computer is also succeptible to accepting interference from other sources.

I doubt that an open computer would irradiate anything any more than cell phones, radio waves, TV broadcasts, TVs, etc.

The shielding is so your computer doesn't muck-up your next door neighbors TV reception. It doesn't have anything to do with shielding PEOPLE from EM radiation. If you're really concerned about such things, you should be more afraid of your blender than your computer.

Sperm, hell. Worry about what will happen when the FCC comes after you. Interfering with your neighbor's TV reception is not only illegal, but may be one of the few cardinal sins left in the US of A. And an unshielded modern machine *will* put out RF interference, big-time.

one of the chief functions of a computer case is to restrict stray electromagnetic fields.... If it's all made out of plexiglas.... wouldn't this end up doing something like, say, causing all your sperm to mutate?

Someone else already pointed it it's so you don't muck with other shit.

As far as keeping it "cool" and "clear" glass looking... all one has to do is shield it... so RF get shot to ground and not your neighbors TV.

It's hard to say whether this is an issue realisticly. (America centric) As in

If it's all made out of plexiglas (or other compounds other than metal, as are many typical case mods), wouldn't this end up doing something like, say, causing all your sperm to mutate?

It's been said elsewhere, but I'd still like to clarify.

1) EM fields are created by AC current. (AC = Alternating Current, the kind in a wall, goes "back and forth" 60 times a second, and for this reason, any 2-prong plug can be reversed and it still works)

I wonder why a lot of the geek crowd has such disdain for Rice Rocket cars (Type-R stickers, graphics, super-high spoilers, rims), but case-modding is cool.

Both are just about equally worthless. Both cost ridiculous sums of money for products eventually become worthless. It looks good, but is mostly a makeup for the user's own inadequacies. These modders just love to tell you about their mods and show it off, as if everybody else should care.

whereas a "type-R" badge on a car that was never offered in that version or a giant spoiler that doesn't produce any downforce, just makes the owner look like an idiot who doesn't know anything about cars.

a better comparison would be twords people who have "show cars". You probably think anything beyond a functional beige case is just as retarded as putting LCD screens in the headrests of a 2 seater car (where nobody can see them) and an extra one in the trunk.

Rice type cars are like imacs, or maybe a gateway with like a flat screen monitor and a slim black tower that sells for only $1,000. They're just cheap pieces of crap meant to look nice. There are a lot of case mods that are just for looks that a lot of people look down on (Ooooo you have a window and a neon light! Badass!) But I'm more impressed with case mods than some decal that took 2 seconds to apply. There's actually some work to making a case mod look nice, now if you buy a case that comes pre-mo

Ergonomic case? you sit on the case? Windows in the case are ergonomic features?UV reactive lighting is ergonomic?

For convenience I use a laptop with a trackpoint. No wires needed, no Ricer peripherals or input options needed.My Multi user systems are rack mounted, and since I started using Knoppix on the Laptop, I don't need fault tolerant redundant storage. All I need is a spare CD offsite and a thumbdrive.

1. Ergonomics is key and bridges the real world and the virtual world of the GUI.

I'm sorry, but cutting windows into a case and filling it with flashing blue lights makes it look like a K-Mart. It has NOTHING to do with ergonomics.

Personally, when I work on my computer, I only need to look at the screen. The last thing I want to look at is a distracting CPU case. My CPU is discreetly tucked away in a rack with a door that's usually closed. Unless I need to burn a CD, I never have to look at it or lis

Except that the people that buy this crap are not case modders. The term "case modder" implies that you have some artistic vision to take something boring and through hard work and craftsmanship you modify it to make something unique. This, however, is a bunch of overpriced crap that's trying to cash in on the "sure, I'll pay $30 for a fan with LEDs" crowd. "Case modding" does not mean picking out your case from a menu of options in a catalog.

Apparently, these are the same people that plaster their Civics with stickers and buy "horsepower adders", as if a gauze air filter and neon colored ignition wires actually had any (non-psychological) effect on performance.

Actually, the air filter can give a boost in performace, maybe 5-15 hp, but hey, it's a boost:)

When I went to get a new air filter for my car, it was stock at $34, a KnY at $36 or a Delux performace blah blah at $112, I took the KnY and it most likly did the same as the Super Delux Blah Blah, but hey, those stupid fools help keep the normal end lower:)

Well, the Japanese site is already slashdotted (at least, I think it is, seeing as I can't read Japanese) and the American site doesn't have examples of what you can build from the kit. Doesn anyone know if you can build a smaller form-factor case from this kit. One that would, say, hold the inards of an Xbox snuggly?

Looks like the real cool that these fellows need is not in the aesthetics of their finished product, but in their server farm which is causing 2nd-degree burns to anyone within 5 ft. of their "cool" cases.

I saw erector and lubric in subject and i had to re-read couple before i understood what hardware they offered modding kits for.:-)

Chinese manufacturers sometimes have real gems in the names of their products. Like Asrock motherboards - every time i see one of those, goatse guy comes to mind. Or the VIAGra chipsets. No kidding - google [google.com]

I worked on a project in Phoenix, AZ a couple of years ago. Fry's is a geek's dream store. Think BestBuy/CircuitCity + CompUSA + RadioShack all in a store the size of a Sam's Club/Costco. I've heard rumors they are going to be opening a store in Atlanta, GA, but nothing yet:(

Fry's was originally a supermarket in the Santa Clara valley (what became known as "Silicon Valley"). When Safeway started to move in, the Fry brothers saw the writing on the wall and applied the supermarket model to electronics.

The very first store was on Arques/Lawrence Expressway, very close to Hwy 101. It was before they decided to tart them up with amusement park style "themes" (in fact, when the original store moved across and slightly south on Lawrence, it became the first "theme" store done up t

If you build your own case you had better be careful that the fans and other components are positioned so that you get good airflow around the stuff that gets hot. Case designers spend a lot of time verifying that their boxes won't overheat and it's sometimes not at all obvious how the air is going to move.

Are you sure about this? From what I can tell, most third party case designers do little more than follow the ATX spec and maybe stick a couple of extra fan ports wherever they have room. It's virtually impossible for them to do airflow analysis because they don't know exactly where the fan (or any other components beyond the cards) will be on the motherboard. OEMs, especially the ones that make small or fancy cases, can do this kind of testing but most Slashdotters don't buy OEM equipment (at least for

I personally think case modding is kind of idiotic. I suppose it gives bragging rights in some circles, but strikes me that anyone you would really want to impress wouldn't give a crap about your computer case.

I saw a mod on TechTV where they put the comptuer in a machine gun cartridge box. OK, what is the point of this? It doesn't make you cool, it just makes you the idiot who wasted countless hours with a Dremmel Powertool modifying a tin can to house his computer.

Self-building a system, especially with a creative enclosure, is never a Bad Thing. However, there is one very important -- I would even say 'critical' -- aspect of doing so that no one seems to be paying attention to, and it applies to ANY computer case that is not a full wrap-around all-metal enclosure.

Specifically: Unless you take explicit steps to electrically shield the transparent parts, the enclosure will never meet FCC Part 15 requirements for not radiating RF energy, or being susceptible to outside RFI (Radio Frequency Interference).

Here's the filthy details, and some more info on why this is a Bad Thing. Early computer systems and peripherals were classed as "Unintentional Radiators" under part 15.3(z) [akamaitech.net] of the FCC regs. Later, as processor speeds climbed, an additional category of 'Digital Device' was created under part 15.3(k).

It was under this part that two subclasses were created. You may have heard references to something being a "Class A Computing Device" in the commercial world, or a "Class B Computing Device" in the consumer world. Both of these subclasses have to do with how much RF the device radiates under normal use, and how much potential it has to interfere with other nearby devices, including TV's, stereos, etc. The ARRL's web site [arrl.org] has a page that summarizes this, [arrl.org] and provides a great explanation on the issue of what 'harmful interference' is, and what the rules say about responsibility for solving issues involving it.

The Reader's Disgust version is this: Sure, you can build your computer into the flashiest Lexan-and-Aluminum enclosure you can find. You can equip it with all kinds of see-through parts, flashing LEDs, and other useless fluff to your heart's content.

HOWEVER -- remember that any material other than metal, solid or mesh, is going to be pretty much transparent to whatever RF energy your system spews into the surrounding environment in the course of its normal operation. If your flashy see-through system causes interference to ANY other RF-using device that is NOT covered by Part 15, to the point where said device cannot operate properly, it is YOUR responsibility to clean it up, electrically speaking.

Transparency to RF is a two-edged sword. You might get incredibly lucky, in that your way-cool see-through system might not be causing any interference at all. But what happens when, just as one example, the ham radio operator next door to you starts transmitting with a 1,000-watt-plus signal? (Yes, we are allowed to use that kind of power, and more).

Another example: What happens if a cop, the paramedics, or anyone else with a portable transceiver happens to transmit with said portable and they happen to be close to your computer at the same time?

Either way, a good chunk of the RF energy from those transmissions are going to go straight into your computer, because all that Lexan is going to let it in like a firehose stream through tissue paper. At best, your system may lock up or reboot unexpectedly. At worst, you could be looking at hard drive corruption.

And guess who's responsible for clearing up the resultant mess? Not the ham radio op. What they're doing is covered very well indeed under FCC Part 97. [gpo.gov] (That's not to say they'd just tell you to fix it yourself -- most hams are pretty nice about helping you to fix such issues if their transmitters appear to be wreaking havoc, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the owner of the Part 15 device).

Not the cops, paramedics, or whoever else was using the portable radio either. They're operating perfectly within the limits of their FCC license as well. No, the onus for fixing the problem lands right back on your shoulders, as the computer owner, all because you wanted a

While I don't take issue with the technical accuracy of what you've said, from a practical point of view, these "cases", while not the greatest thing from an RF point of view, probably won't radiate enough energy to bother a transistor radio sitting a foot away. I spent several years working in an EMI lab testing electronic components and from experience I know that a PC, even a multi-gigahertz one, radiates very little RF energy.

As for problems with EMI reception...well, I suppose that if my next door neighbor had a kilowatt transmitter, the antenna in the backyard would be a dead giveaway and I might think twice before building one of these systems. But, apart from an extreme case like that, PCs are really quite immune from RF interference. A great deal of the design work that goes into the actual chips on the boards is devoted to EMI and ESD rejection. Critical signals are routed differentially. Signals on the PCB are (relatively) low frequency and routed with an eye toward reducing EMI transmission and susceptability.

My current work involves designing and simulating high speed digital systems. Part of that design work is to determine both how well the network rejects EMI and how little it radiates. And, as I mentioned before, short an extreme case (like the 1000 watt Ham transmitter), it is virtually impossible to couple enough energy onto the transmission lines to cause any trouble. And the amount of energy radiated beyond a foot or so is almost unmeasurable.

So, from a practical point (electrically speaking), these "cases", such as they are, are probably not the EMI terrors that one might thing. That being said, I sure wouldn't want one around my cat.

This looks like a reduced-scale version of 80/20, an industrial product typically used for building custom workbenches, robot chassis and the like. I wonder how the prices compare. The 80/20 web site is here:
http://www.8020.net/ [8020.net]

Chopsticks were certainly NOT invented in the U.S. (See http://www.cuisinenet.com/digest/region/china/chop sticks.shtml for just one reference.) And Michaelangelo was commissioned to paint, among other things, the Sistine Chapel during his lifetime.

Michelangelo WAS able to sell his works. Are you forgetting David? Are you forgetting the Sistine Chapel? The Laurentian Library? The Medici Tombs? The Last Judgment? If anything, he was very successful. Leave it to pretentious geeks to spew out bullshit on the bullshit capital of the Net: Slashdot.

I have seen few of those small ones. They already came prebuilt with motherboard, CPU, etc
They did have a cd burner with them - one of them laptop-style things. And the power supply was a separate AC adapter if I recall correctly.
The whole thing was about the size of the Xbox system. Really nice looking but dont know how reliable they are.
I dont remember the manufacture but you can probably find many of those on google or ebay.

I searched google a bit.
Did not find the exact thing - cant remember the name of it. But came across this small guy [avdeals.com]. It is somewhat pricey, but i am sure you can find cheaper versions given enough time. I dont know if you can get much smaller without going to Pentium 2 or lower class machines.

I'm looking for a very, very small case. Something that would fit a regular sized hard drive, a mini-ITX via board, a slim PSU, and that's it.

Here is perhaps a starting point: mini-itx.com [mini-itx.com]. I have no clue how good the store is, but they at least list specs and names so you can look around for the best site to buy the cases from.

There is always a project box [radioshack.com] from RadioShack, good for building your own small projects. There might be one that will fit your needs.

I think most interference would be in the 33, 66, and 100 - 200 Mhz range. The only frequencies over 200 Mhz are inside the processor, under the heat sink and heat spreader and far too weak to cause any interference.